Variety Show: The Art of Glenn Brown

“I tend to think of the exhibitions I do as a loose accumulation of paintings with no single theme—like a variety show,” artist Glenn Brown said in 2007. “A comedy act, a magician, dancing girls, a ventriloquist, and of course a good impressionist make, I think, a reasonable show.” Glenn Brown: Three Exhibitions, a survey of shows from 2004, 2007, and 2009 published by Rizzoli and the Gagosian Gallery, gives you a front row seat at the variety show that is Brown’s art. The cast of characters comes from the collected imagery of art history’s past. But rather than a mere revival show, Brown’s revue is something new. “Brown has likened himself to Dr. Frankenstein,” Rochelle Steiner writes in her essay, “creatively piecing together sections of figures, backgrounds, colour palettes, shadows, and compositions, among other elements—but his approach goes far beyond that of cutting and pasting to create works of art that are without doubt his own.” It’s alive, you’ll scream, as you see the good doctor slice and dice past masters into a modern mastery of his own. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Variety Show."

[Many thanks to Rizzoli and for providing me with a review copy of Glenn Brown: Three Exhibitions and to Gagosian Gallery for providing me with the cover image above.]

The Bold and the Beautiful: Modern Art and Subtlety

A recent feature piece in The New York Times on the 25th Paris Biennale, currently at the Grand Palais until September 22^nd, made the bold statement that “[f]uture historians may retain [it]… as a watershed in the history of Western culture.” The author, Souren Melikian, bases that prediction on the belief that the biennale “mirrors better than any event on the world scene our new approach to art.” “Interest in subtle nuances is receding as our attention span shortens,” Melikian goes on to argue. “Awareness of this trend probably accounts for the recent art trade emphasis on clarity and monumentality and the striking progression of 20th-century modernity.” In Melikian and others’ minds, the modern mind loves modern art, and modern art is nothing if not bold. Subtlety is for squares, or at least the generations of the past. From here on, will bold and beautiful always be linked? Or is there hope for subtler treasures? Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "The Bold and the Beautiful."

Map Quest: Guillermo Kuitca’s “Everything”

“Painting is a battlefield… about what is, what is not, what ought to be, what I like, what I hate, what I love,” says Argentine artist Guillermo Kuitca, subject of a retrospective exhibition titled Guillermo Kuitca: Everything—Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980-2008 at the Walker Art Center. One of the most important painters working in Latin America today, Kuitca often uses maps and other representations of space to analyze the place of humanity in the world today. The human figure almost never appears in Kuitca’s work, but we feel it there through our own involvement in the paintings. Through his creative cartography, Kuitca calls us to join him on his quest to map out the battlefield of art and modern life. Please come over to Picture This at Big Think to read more of "Map Quest."

[Image: Guillermo Kuitca. El mar dulce. 1986. Acrylic on canvas. 78 ¾ x 118 in. Collection Paul and Trudy Cejas – Cejas Art Ltd.]

[Many thanks to the Walker Art Center for providing me with the image above from and a review copy of the catalogue to Guillermo Kuitca: Everything—Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980-2008, which runs through September 19, 2010.]